Toy piano.



' s. SIEGEL.

TOY PIANO.

APPLICATION r1150 MAY 10. 1915.

Pateilted 0C1]. 17,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- S. SIEGEL.

TOY PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10. 19I5.

1,201,769. Patented Oct. 17,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL SIEGEL, OF GHIGAGQ, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO ANNA SIEGEL, OF CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS.

TOY PIAiN'O.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 10, 1915. Serial No. 26,941.

'music, particularly to children, by interesting them not only in simple melodies, but in objects such as animals the nature of which their juvenile intellects can more readily grasp. This I accomplish by the means hereinafter fully .described, and as particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a front of a toy piano to the keys of which my improvements are applied. Fig. 2 is a side view of the broken-away exposed portion of a key embodying a modification of my invention. Fig. 3 is a similar view of a key in dotted lines showing a modified form of the means embodying my invention. Fig. 4c is an end view of the key shown in Fig. 3 in solid lines. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of a key showing yet another modification.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the casing of a toy piano, and c, d, e, f, g, a, b, a, d, e, f, represent the white keys of the key-board thereof, as shown in the drawings.

My invention consists in identifying the difierent keys of the key-board by some ob ject the nature of which can be understood by the child-mind. For instance, in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings the keys of the first octave have has-relief representations of wild animals X, and the keys of the second octave have has-relief representations of domestic animals.

In Fig. 3 of the drawings, the key is shown to be identified by a toy animal D which has a U-shaped spring clip E projecting forward from its base the lower leg .of which is adapted to be slipped into a longitudinal groove m that extends longitudinally back from the front end of the same under the ivory top thereof a short distance. I prefer to make these toy animals in a couchant position, as shown, but do not wish to be confined to making them in this way.

In Fig. 5 I show still another modified method of identifying the keys, which consists simply of a suitable paster G of suitable size pasted on the keys F. This modification would permit my invention to be used in conjunction with the key-board of an ordinary piano, in which event it would be desirable to use some kind of a cement that would not injure the ivories.

It is obvious that the representation of the objects used to identify the keys may be placed on the outer end of each key or, if preferred, farther back. The objects used to identify the keys may be either animate or inanimate, and may be any object of the vegetable kingdom or of the animal kingdom, and may represent human characters in life or fiction, according as desired.

Immediately above the key-board of the piano a horizontally elongated rectangular card K is hung by means of hooks k, 70, and this card-board is provided with one or more rows L and M of pictures of animals corresponding to those on the keys, but arranged so that reading these pictures in said rows successively from left to right and striking the keys having the same pictures thereon in the order in which they appear in said rows' the child will play a simple tune. Thus, if the child strikes the keys of the toy piano, indicated by the pictures of the animals in the order in which the same animals appear on the card 'K, shown in the drawings, he will produce the musical composition commonly known by the title Yankee Doodle.

What I claim as new is:

1. A piano having a key-board each key of which has a representation of some object of nature thereon, the representation on each of said keys being different from the representations appearing on the otherv keys thereof.

Patented Oct. 17, 1916.

of nature thereon, in comloination with a In Witness whereof I have hereunto set chart having a series of representations cor my hand this 27th day of April, 1915.

responding to those on the keys of said keyboard, and arranged one after the other in SAMUEL SIEGEL such order that When the keys bearing sim- Witnesses:

ilar representatlons are depressed in said ARTHUR FITCH,

order a musical melody will be produced. RENE LENTZ. 

